234 W. 42nd Street,

New York,
NY10036

Yesterday, 9/3/08, I attempted to see “Dark Night” at a 3:45 PM showing. For at least a half-hour after the announced starting time, digital “film facts” and AMC audio source were repeated and there was no film. No management was in sight, the concession folks were disinterested, and I went down the six escalators to the box office for a refund. They were aware of the problem but unconcerned. Without projectionists or apparent management, multi-million dollar complexes like this are bound to become extinct very soon, even on the world’s greatest city’s major entertainment street. Farewell, AMC and Loew’s.

Though I am not an official volunteer, I have tried to be of help and I sent in the revisions to the Empire’s Introduction. I didn’t see the address Comment on the Parsons, but it will get done now (within a day or two). There’s no official mechanism for all comments to get read and acted upon. I suppose you could try at the “new theater” or other ways to directly send in updated information to the official webmasters.

You hit the nail right on the head LuisV. Too bad more theatres were not saved the same way. Thats why I’m glad to here at least something is trying to be done to the Kings in Brooklyn, (a real treasure) as well as the Ritz in Elizabeth N.J. The Empire, along with all those other old grindhouses were special, even if they were run down.

Although some disagree I believe that it is a tremendously clever reuse of the space. The old theater serving as the lobby to the new allows people to really look at the detail of the old theater as they rise on the escalators up through just under the procenium.

In an ideal world, this theater would have been one of the “screens” in the multiplex. I’m not privy to the complexities of multiplex economics so I can’t say why this didn’t happen but this theater appeared intimate enough to have accomodated that.

Nonetheless, I’m glad that the theater survived because, for me, what makes a theater a treasure, is the architecture and this one is beautiful and worth preserving. What’s even better is that the multitudes of youth who come through its entry have a glimpse of what a true theater was like and not the interchangable multiplex boxes we tend to have today.

p.s. The intro should be changed. The last line about the Times Square Cafe should be deleted as the balcony hasn’t served that purpose for many years.

As as adendum to my previous comment….When this theater first opened this escalator area opened into a food court. As a matter of fact, there was a Cinnabons right there and, on several ocassions, I bought one (or more) for the road. At that time,there was plenty of open space and therefore no issue.

Then the food court failed and they took all of the restaurant space and almost all of the food court’s open space and rented it to Buster and Daves. The separation being big glass walls so that you can see everyone eating and playing inside. That’s why there’s a problem now. There is no overflow and I think its a dangerous situation; especially if there is an emergency.

AlAlvarez…..the problem at the AMC is that the area originally created to hold the people as they change escaltors has been severely constricted by glass walls that were built to house more restaurant space for Buster and Dave’s. The back up (when it occurs) now has no overflow area. That’s what creates the potentially dangerous situation especially if people are trying to exit in a hurry as in the case of an actual emergency.

ok, again I’m talking about when I go there, which is always on weekday afternoons, when nobody is really on the escalators. I can imagine that on a weekend night ( which you couldn’t pay me to go to) it gets pretty hairy!

I think what bothers me most about it is that almost all of the Friday night crowd standing still on those down escalators are about 25-35 years younger than me. Walking down an escalator is really easy – no strain at all. If only I had the guts to yell out “Gangway! Move it! Gotta catch a bus!” :)

The AMC exit escalators appear to have been designed to move the exiting crowd away from the main building in case of fire. The large “holding” areas in between are supposed to handle the overflow when the escalators back up. Human nature is to huddle around the escalator instead, causing a dangerous result.

The buildings department often demand designs that do not conform with human nature. I often experienced this on new builds in NY. Consider the safe distance of the entrance escalators on each floor compared to the exits.

MarkieS, I disagree that escalators are made to stand still. Don’t you get annoyed by people who block the people movers at airports with luggage and stand still?

Escalators are made for people who don’t want to walk down stairs. If you don’t like people standing on escalators, then don’t take them. The elevators are quite convenient. This drives me crazy in subways too. People get annoyed on narrow escalators because I won’t walk up. So take the stairs if you want to walk!

The escalator exits would be OK if people would walk down them, but hardly anyone does and they’re too narrow for passing. I’ve missed many a bus to NJ at the Port Authority because of people standing still on all those down escalators.

The elevator is an alternative way to get out, but that can take longer than the escalator just waiting for it to arrive.

Those are my only complaints with the Empire 25. Being located practically across the street from the bus terminal is a nice convenience.

This comment was posted on another message board, but what exactly dies it mean?

>>Just left the 3pm at AMC of the 42nd showing of “TDK” and naturally, I was chanting like a mantra, “Please no idiots beside or in front of us, please no idiots beside or in front of us.” My mantra worked and JUST as the movie was starting a mother and 2 kids walked in and the the kid to my right’s excitement was so palpable, it was infectious. He was so cute.

As the movie continued, I noticed the kid kept darting his eyes towards me. I always eat a simple tray of sushi, (no, no chopsticks or anything bitches, I just like it because it’s easy to eat) but the kid very stealthily unwrapping his food from his bag and every time I looked he would stop and put it back in his bag and start all over again.

I so wanted to buy the whole family something, but I knew that definitely wasn’t the way to go.

The mother was so together, the kids were well behaved. Broke my heart.

The problem is that there is not enough space at the “turn around” areas where you switch from one escalator to the other on the floor where Busters and Applebees are located. I’ve seen some very uncomforatable situations when multiple movies let out. I think one escaltor is slower than another resulting in back ups that can lead to a dangerous situation if people panicked. I have never seen this at any other theater.

Whats inadequate about them. The regular escalator sets on the east side of the building and they can turn the ones that you enter on into exits, there are the stairwell exits in the auditoriums and mixed around the waiting areas.